Qualifying
Report:
At the start of this session we were missing three of the
twenty-seven cars, with Christian Bakkerud (Carlin Motorsport),
Nick Jones (Team SWR) and Steven Kane (Promatecme F3) all
hors de combat after a series of incidents in the earlier
session. It was looking likely that Bakkerud might make it
out before the session was over, but Jones certainly wouldn't
- in fact he'd be lucky if he had a car ready by morning.
Kane was another who obviously wouldn't make it out at all.
Meanwhile, Ryan Lewis (T-Sport) was doing his usual early
charge. Quite why he persists in doing this, no one seems
to know. It never seems to help matters, and he usually loses
lots of ground later on. It really doesn't work. This was
more than adequately proved when Mike Conway (Fortec Motorsport)
took the position back. Meanwhile, the remarkable return of
Danny Watts was continuing apace, and the Alan Docking Racing
driver was 3rd, and showing that his speed hasn't diminished
at all during his enforced layoff.
A driver desperately looking for speed was Marko Asmer (Hitech
Racing). The series leader was looking seriously off the pace
here, and although he was temporarily fastest, it still wasn't
looking good for the Estonian. He was soon shooting down the
order, while everyone else speeded up. In the Scholarship
class, Barton Mawer (T-Sport) was proving that whatever he
knew abut the circuit, Lewis hadn't taken it on board. The
Australian was on pole for the National Class, and was up
around 5th place, possibly as a result of an early morning
walk around half of the track (half of Wiltshire had turned
up, and there were a lot of people trying to get in and more
importantly trying to park). At the front, Asmer temporarily
got pole again, only to lose it a second time to the flying
Conway. However, some of the usual suspects seemed remarkably
unwilling to show their hands this early on in the session.
Asmer's slide had already begun however, and Conway was now
ahead of Lewis and Watts. Tim Bridgman (Hitech Racing) is
having a singularly bad day, but at least he now seemed to
be showing some speed again, and was 7th overall.
The Carlin boys hadn't done much yet, of course, but that
was all about to change. The first sign of the writing on
the wall came while Daniel Clarke (Double R Racing) was setting
a new pole time. Almost unnoticed, Alvaro Parente had snuck
up the order to 5th, and was not in the slightest bit bothered
when Conway went faster than Clarke. What was quite remarkable
was the change in Stephen Jelley (Menu Motorsport), who was
4th, a lot higher up than his performances since Spa would
lead anyone to expect. He would later slip down the order
slightly, but the fact that he was now featuring in the top
ten, rather than acting as a buffer between the National Class
runners was definitely cause for celebration - and relief
- in the Menu camp. The National Class itself was still up
for grabs too - Salvador Duran (P1 Motorsport) was the latest
challenger to haul himself up the order. As all this was going
on, Parente suddenly got the hammer down and was charging.
The result was a pole position, ahead of Conway and Clarke.
Conway's attempt to reclaim the place was short-lived, and
Parente simply grabbed it back on his next flying lap.
And somewhere in the background, another Carlin driver was
now beginning to sneak up the order. This time it was Charlie
Kimball, who was now 3rd. Conway and Clarke were both still
trying to get the better of Parente, but a scorching lap from
the Portuguese soon saw them off. This was followed by a general
run for the pits, with Jelley joining the scramble in, though
in his case it was the result of a grassy moment that had
filled the radiator intakes with large clumps of circuit greenery.
The pit lane was suddenly a very busy place.
Asmer wasn't coming in and instead made the most of a nice
clear track to haul himself up to 5th. Again he didn't get
to keep it, because this time James Walker (Fortec Motorsport)
was determined to demote the Estonian. Bruno Senna (Double
R Racing) was now looming large just behind Asmer as well;
what with one thing and another he wasn't having the best
of times as he tried to ensure he'd still be leading he championship
when we finally left Castle Combe. Matters at the front were
beginning to resolve themselves, with another fastest first
sector time from Parente, and a very good time from Kimball
that allowed him to join the Portuguese on the front row.
The only thing stopping Parente from improving his pole time
was traffic; he'd looked set to break into the 58 second area,
but then slower cars ahead meant he lost time taking avoiding
action. He wasn't finished yet though Kimball briefly
took pole, also getting close to the magical 58 second lap,
with a 59.070. However, he'd barely had time to savour the
achievement when Parente came right back at him, with a time
of 58.994. The lap record was now in severe danger on race
day
The session was almost two thirds through, and the National
Class still wasn't settled. Ben Clucas - on his first single-seater
outing of the year - was temporarily heading up the class,
and was looking remarkable comfortable in the Lola run by
Fluid Motorsport. It remained to be seen whether he could
keep it, but he looks likely to be a real threat before the
season is out. Ricardo Teixeira (Carlin Motorsport) is improving
as the season progresses, but you could have been forgiven
for wondering what he was doing when he got Camp badly wrong
and bounced merrily along the kerbs, only to end up crossing
the track and coming to a halt in the grass on the inside
of the corner. At least he hadn't done much damage, though
he had mown down a lot of whatever crop it is that's growing
at the circuit this year. In a spirit of intra-team friendship
Kimball tried the same stunt a little while later, while the
stricken Angolan was trying to get moving again. It was all
a bit alarming really. The National Class lead had swapped
again while all this was going, but had been a bit overlooked
in all the excitement. Jonathan Kennard (Alan Docking Racing)
was now at the top of the order, though given how often the
lead had changed he'd be lucky to keep it for longer than
a heartbeat. And so it proved. Charlie Hollings (Promatecme
F3) promptly snatched it back, though he didn't get to hang
on to it for long either. Next man up was the irrepressible
Mawer, the Aussie willing to fight to the last for the place
he felt belonged to him.
In the Championship Class it was now looking as if the pole
was Parente's but there was much to fight for at the lower
levels. That said Jelley had staked a claim to 8th place,
back in single figures at last, while Bakkerud finally emerged
from the pits with a lot to do and only 10 minutes left to
do it in. Things were getting rather heated out on the track
generally, with grassy moments all over the place. Teixeira
staggered in for grass removal, and did Juho Annala. Conway
shot up the order again to grab 3rd, while Kimball decided
to pit so the team could swap tyres around (left to right
and right to left for the rears). While he was doing that,
Conway put in a massive effort and took his front row place
away. The American might have though his session was done,
but he would have to go back out. Danilo Dirani (P1 Motorsport)
looked as if he wished he hadn't bothered getting out of bed,
never mind going out on track. The Brazilian just doesn't
look happy right now, and this session was doing nothing to
improve his mind-set. He was now a less than happy 9th. He
had been 14th previously though so maybe it could have
been worse.
Meanwhile, in another part of the grid, Hollings had once
more taken the National Class pole back. Withy 9 minutes left
to go, it was starting to look like we might actually get
a full practice session this time round. Lewis had a very
hairy moment at Camp, but got away with it, while Josh Fisher
(Team SWR) had a spin at Tower. Again, he was able to continue
on his way. Parente, perhaps wisely, seemed to think that
discretion was the better part of valour and retreated to
the pits. He might have made the correct decision. However,
just in case Conway was about to grab pole, the team swapped
the Portuguese driver's tyres around too, ready to send him
back out if they needed to. Carlin had other things on their
minds by then; Bakkerud was now up to 13th, but still needed
to put in an effort and try and improve. As Kimball and Parente
went back out (and Edenbridge Racing's Cheong Lou Meng was
pushed into the paddock, presumably too tired to continue),
it all went pear-shaped for Bakkerud. This time there was
no one to blame but himself; pushing too hard the Dane found
himself in a tyre wall for the second time that day. His session
was over, and so was everyone else's. With the car in a dangerous
position, and very little of the session left to run, the
officials showed the red flag and the chequered flag. It was
all over bar the shouting.
Parente was in possession of yet another pole position, with
Conway beside him on the grid. Kimball would have to settle
for 3rd after his team-mate made further progress impossible,
and Clarke was 4th. Asmer was 5th from Watts, James Walker
(Fortec Motorsport), Dirani, Jelley and Senna. Bridgman was
11th from Bakkerud, while National Class pole went to Hollings,
from Mawer, Kennard and Duran. Ronayne O'Mahony (Fortec Motorsport)
was in the midst of the National Class runners as usual, ahead
of Clucas, Fisher, Annala and Adam Khan (Performance). Keiko
Ihara (Carlin Motorsport) was back there with her team-mate,
Teixeira, while the last driver to actually participate in
the session was Cheong. Kane and Jones would be left to bring
up the rear, neither of them having set a time.